Looking at the research megathread it’s pretty hard to avoid the conclusion that Nicole is a victim of harassment.
If you follow any of the links in the message her work address is right there. It doesn’t take much effort to confirm it is her real work address.
It’s an unfulfilling answer but it is the most plausible. The only question is what next?
I feel like posting screen caps of the PMs with witty titles isn’t really the right way to go. I know no one means any harm but we’re just perpetuating the exposure and probably even encouraging the perpetrator.
Others have already tried to make her aware that she’s being harassed through various avenues - a tricky proposition.
I presume devs are continually trying to improve anti-spam measures.
Maybe we could be a bit more respectful with the posts here, or discourage repeat posts of the same image.
I’m not some arbiter of ethics and morality trying to tell you all what to do, I just think these issues are worth some consideration and discussion.
100% there are people creating an unhealthy obsession with her and this community is feeding it. She will have negative consequences due to this.
And that may have been the harasser’s goal all along. It’s no secret the internet is full of misguided investigators and people who don’t realize how their curiosity can be harmful to others.
Hopefully “Nicole” isn’t being subjected to other forms of harassment too.
Before this community existed, all content was just scattered over different communities and instances - 196, ShitPosts, ShowerThoughts, Fediverse, etc. At least with one single community it’s easy for the admins to remove 90% of content instantly.
And yes, for obsessed people it does lift the burden of needing to search through many posts, but so does it for admins and investigators, in order to find patterns in the messages, that can be used for blocking them.
Couldn’t admins just check PMs and see which account has sent a million?
There are hundreds of different accounts, without little correlation in itself now (previously it was something like nicoleXX)